Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint qualifying: Piastri pips Norris, Verstappen P4

While all eyes were on Norris and Verstappen as they resumed their title battle, Piastri managed to crash the party and take pole. Charles Leclerc was third.

Norris has a golden opportunity this weekend to reduce the gap to Verstappen who has a five-place grid penalty to deal with in the grand prix.

Verstappen's fourth place in Sprint qualifying will not help his cause to keep Norris at bay while the latter also did not capitalize on his rival's misfortunes as Piastri took the top spot. Maybe McLaren will employ team orders to put Norris ahead tomorrow.

While the session started in clear conditions, the clouds gathered as SQ2 began and kept threatening the proceedings all the way till the end, but the rain did not come.

After being behind Norris in the past couple of weekends, Piastri now enjoying the fully upgraded MCL38, managed to turn the tables on his teammate.

Verstappen did not seem to focus on qualifying pace in FP1 apparently working on the long runs, something he has suffered from in the previous race in Mexico. Will he be able to make amends in the Sprint?

As for the rest it was Carlos Sainz in fifth, George Russell in sixth ahead of an excellent Pierre Gasly in seventh while Liam Lawson beat Yuki Tsunoda and was eighth, the Japanese driver dropping out from SQ1.

Alex Albon beat Franco Colapinto this time and was ninth, the latter in 14th place. Oliver Bearman was tenth beating Nico Hulkenberg who is usually no slouch in qualifying.

The shocks of the session were Lewis Hamilton who was 11th and Sergio Perez who did not seem to improve with his new chassis, and was 13th. Fernando Alonso was out in SQ1.

Speaking after qualifying Piastri said: "It was a tricky session.

"I felt pretty comfortable at the start and then the grip was coming up a lot through the session. With the track this year it's hard enough to see where you're going, let alone trying to do a fast lap, so it's challenging out there.

"But happy to have qualified on pole for the Sprint," he admitted. "My first lap didn't feel amazing and I knew there were a few places to improve and the second lap was good, and the tyres hung on. So very, very happy so excited to be starting off P1."

The temperature dropped between first practice and Sprint qualifying in Sao Paulo while clear conditions continued. Track temperature was 40 degrees Celsius while air temperature was 22 degrees.

All drivers set out on track on the mandatory Medium tyres to start the 12-minute SQ1 that would see the slowest five drivers eliminated.

With ten minutes remaining, Leclerc was the first driver to start a timed lap with Sainz behind him on another one in the sister car. They went first and second briefly as more drivers started putting in the laps shuffling the order.

With seven minutes remaining, Norris went fastest, but Piastri went faster with Hulkenberg slotting in second while Verstappen was only good for fourth on his first attempt.

Then another round of laps was underway and in the end, it was Norris who was fastest with a 1:09.477, over seven tenths quicker than Piastri in second.

Albon was third with Leclerc fourth and Perez fifth ahead of Verstappen in sixth.

The first to drop out was Alonso who was 16th fastest ahead of Esteban Ocon in 17th and Tsunoda in 18th. Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu were 19th and 20th.

The second part of Sprint qualifying started with skies getting dark and risk of rain increasing as teams and drivers scrambled out to set banker laps in the dry before and if the rain came in.

Norris maintained his edge and was fastest with Piastri chasing while Leclerc was third. Verstappen was fourth ahead of Sainz in fifth.

Gasly and Bearman did well to make it into the top ten in sixth and fifth respectively. Russell was eighth and Lawson was ninth with Albon tenth.

The first to lose out was a big name, Hamilton was only 11t fastest in the Mercedes with Hulkenberg in 12th while Perez was another big name losing out in 13th.

The new chassis apparently not working for the Mexican

Colapinto and Bottas were 14th and 15th respectively.

The final ten drivers were out on track for the final time with the Soft tyres finally making their debut as per the regulations.

The drivers took their time as it was going to be one shot, one lap to achieve the best position preferably as late as possible for the lap to be at its best.

Norris and Piastri went first and second with Albon third then the other drivers started their laps.

Gasly slotted in third while Bearman had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.

Piastri went fastest on his second run while Verstappen was on his only flying lap while Norris was not improving his time.

Verstappen could only managed fourth, over three tenths off the pace that was in the end set by Piastri who took pole from Norris by a mere 0.029s. Leclerc was third fastest, 0.254s off the pace.

Sainz ended the session in fifth, 0.358s away from pole and 0.186s ahead of Russell who was the only Mercedes in the top ten and in sixth.

Gasly did a great job to take seventh in the Alpine while Lawson beat Tsunoda and was eighth fastest.

Albon was ninth in the Williams while Bearman threw everything away as after making it to the top ten, he messed up his lap by exceeding the track limits and losing his time. He was tenth. Not bad though given he beat Hulkenberg.